A hero is born
by Steven P. P
Summary: A fic mainly about Trunks' birth.
1. Chapter 1

A hero is born

Chapter 1.

Disclaimer: What? I don't own Dragonball Z? Too bad…

  
It was a beautiful spring morning. The birds were singing, the trees broke into leaves, some of them were already blooming. The sun flooded the city with warm light, and within the city a large building, with these words on it: "Capsule Corporation". 

Bulma just woke up. She got dressed leisurely, and noted herself not for the first and not for the last time that she's got nothing to wear. But exceptionally she was right, because most of her clothes were too small for her these days. _Well yes... This is pretty much the ninth one... _She proudly examined herself in the mirror. Most women would be shocked by the sight, and would run to the shops to buy the latest fat-reducing drug, but she didn't even think of such things. Of course she didn't, she was pregnant. Pregnant with the child of the saiyajin prince.

Her face suddenly became gloomy.

- Our baby could be born in any minute, and he just couldn't stop training in that stupid spaceship! I had enough! I'll go and tell him this can't go on!

- 14995... 14996... 14997... - the saiyajin forced himself to count the half-handed push-ups in a loud voice, although his lung was burning and every inch of his body was aching in exhaustion - 14998... 14999... 15000! - Before he could decide to make another set of exercises or not, his harrowed body made the decision: His arm was seized with a cramp, and he fell to the ground. _Damn... This is useless... _As the day to fight the cyborgs drew near, he was getting more and more certain that he'll never reach super saiyajin this way. Maybe he'll never reach it at all. _Maybe it won't be necessary. After all I'm already a lot stronger than before. But still... I need something to test my new strength. _He walked to the control panel and pressed a few buttons. A holographic screen appeared; little white dots on a black cloth. A starmap. He pressed some buttons again, and a message appeared in the upper-right corner of the screen: "SEARCH FOR UNUSUAL OBJECTS AND EVENTS IN PROGRESS..." After a few seconds the text changed, and the computer zoomed into the map, revealing a solar system approximately 10 light-years away. "SEARCH RESULT: ONE OBJECT FOUND. NAME: KAPET. TYPE: PLANET." Vegita grinned.

- A cosmic disaster. Perfect.

Bulma was startled when she stepped into the ship. The gravity was set back to normal, the lights were turned off, it looked disturbingly empty and unused. _Something is wrong here... Vegita interrupted his training?? That's impossible! Unless... _The girl blushed. She wanted to rush at him, she wanted to bawl him out because of his neglect, when he just abandoned the whole thing without a word for her...

- Hey, woman! - the prince showed up behind her in the doorway - Have you seen your father?

- No, dear - Bulma smiled like an angel - Why?

- I need him to prepare the ship for a journey.

She couldn't believe her ears.

- What??

- I want to go to a distant planet called Kapet.

Bulma turned red again, but this time in anger. _God! The Prince of the Saiyajins is worried about you and he shows it, too? Keep dreaming, girl...!_

- What did you say?!!

- He? - Vegita was completely suprised by her sudden change of behaviour. Though a voice deep in his mind told him why she was acting like that, he didn't listen to that voice for years, or at least he did not want to - What the hell is wrong with you now??

- What is wrong with me?! Listen here, you first-class fool!! I'm in the ninth month of my pregnancy with your kid! Still you hardly mind me... - she looked down at her belly - mind us at all, you jump about here all day, but okay, I bear that! But now, when our baby can be born in any minute, you simply... leave the planet??!!

The saiyajin grumbled something bad in Saiyago, then he crossed his arms and glared at Bulma like the living statue of relentlessness.

- Look, woman... - he spoke after a minute of silence - I'm not going there to have fun. The inhabitants of Kapet accidentally altered the orbit of the planet's moon, the Tourin, causing it to crash on the planet in about one day.

The girl burst into a mocking laugh.

- This is the joke of the year! Prince Vegita cares about the inhabitants of a distant planet? Rubbish! Prince Vegita only cares about himself! Ha-ha-ha...!

- Woman! Cut it out! - yelled the saiyajin. Bulma stopped laughing, but her eyes were still glowing in anger - I'm not going there to play the hero, either. The creatures on the planet already left or died, because it's no longer inhabitable. The truth is, that... lately no matter how much I train... I'm not making progress... - He closed his eyes for a moment, and Bulma saw sadness and bitterness flickering across his face - I didn't make it to super saiyajin. I'm starting to feel that I reached my limits. I want to try out my powers. And if I succeed, if I stop the Tourin, then I think I'm not going to have problems with the cyborgs, either. Then it's over - I'm finished preparing for the battle.

The girl was struck all of a heap.

- A-Are you serious? You stop training?

- Yes, how many times do I have to tell you?! - Bulma stared at him. _He's not joking!_

- And couldn't you do it a little later? I mean...

- The moon won't halt to your liking, woman. But if you are so afraid of being left alone, then I have an idea... - he swept out of the room, and returned shortly with two strange contraptions. These were scouters, instruments which were used by Freeza, his men and the saiyajins to measure their opponents' power level. And in addition they were able to communicate with it with each other anywhere in the galaxy. Vegita didn't use them any more, because he learned from the other Z-fighters how to "feel" his opponents' ki, but Bulma made a few copies of Radicz's instrument.

- Take one, and keep it by you. You can reach me anytime, if something happened.

- Well, okay - she sighed - Go. Do what you must - she raised her hand as a greeting and left. A horrible feeling struck Vegita: He felt like she waved him a final good-bye.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

The spaceship raced quietly across space. The prince was sitting in the navigator's seat, and much to his annoyance he could not concentrate on the task before him. Bulma's words were the only thing on his mind. _I changed too much. A few years ago I destroyed planets, exterminated races without remorse. And now... It fills me with guilty that I left a pregnant woman alone for a short time! Sometimes I can't understand myself. How could I let this stupid girl make such a sentimental fool out of me? _He remembered the day when she told him that she's pregnant. He was a bit shocked at first, but then for some strange reason he felt so happy, he started running up and down in the spaceship, screaming: "I am going to be a father!! I am going to be a father!!" Of course he took perfect care that no one, not even Bulma sees him. _Unbelieveable. How could I descend to such depths? _But no matter how he fumed within himself, he couldn't drive the suggestion out of his head that he shouldn't have come away. He had too much pride to turn back, however.

"APPROACHING DESTINATION... TWO MINUTES TILL LANDING."

Vegita stood up and looked out of a window. The Kapet was once a blue coloured wonder, just like Earth. But now huge black stains spoiled the view, and enormous explosions tore it's surface apart. He also saw the Tourin. The moon was only a couple thousand miles away from the planet. Only a little time was left till the disaster.

"ATTENTION! LANDING SEQUENCE STARTED..."

He quickly took his seat. _There's no turning back now._

The spaceship landed with a loud crack. The saiyajin gave a grunt; he forgot again to turn on the retrorockets and lower the landing gear. _Damn... With the good old space capsules you simply crashed on the planet and that was all. _He got out from the chair and walked to the door. It was stuck, but he forced it open without difficulty and stepped out of the vehicle.

The Kapet was in really bad shape. As it's moon slowly approached, the rocks of the surface were charged up with a large amount of electricity, changing the once beautiful planet into a rocky desert. Lightnings flashed everywhere.

Vegita viewed the horrible sight without batting an eyelid, but deep in his heart he was a bit nervous. Things were worse than he expected. Much worse.

Suddenly giant rocks broke off the Tourin and plunged towards the surface. Their destruction was like a carpet-raid. The saiyajin got into the air cursing, and fired dozens of ki blasts trying to destroy them before they could damage his ship.

He was fighting against the deluge for a long time, and he felt that slowly but surely he's getting tired. The rock-rain diminished for a moment; he looked down to his ship and saw with relief that it's still in one piece. _I can't do this forever! There isn't a minute left before the disaster! I have to destroy the Tourin, NOW!_ He fired a giant beam from his right hand towards the moon. But the electric field surrounding it resisted the strike. _Damn it!! _The collision of the two energies resulted in a giant explosion, which knocked Vegita down to the rocky surface of the Kapet. The saiyajin was on the verge of fainting, but with much effort he got to his knees. His whole body was covered with blood. 

The night was slowly falling. Bulma had locked herself up in her room for a couple of hours now. She sat on her bed, and tried to figure out what is happening on the Kapet. The scouter on her head reported worrying news: _Vegita's power level decreased dramatically! What could have happened to him?_ She wanted to stand up, but sharp pain shot through her belly and she fell down from the bed. The girl noticed something strange about the baby lately, but she didn't pay much attention to it. It was a huge mistake. The pain was unbearable, she felt like someone stabbed her belly with a large knife, again, again and again. She tried to shout for help, but no voice came out from her throat. She desperately reached for the scouter beside her... 

__

I have failed...!!! Unrestrained anger conquered the prince. He was beating a sharp rock with his fist in rage, not even felling that the rock is making deeper and deeper strokes on his hand. _It's all over! The Tourin will batter me as flat as a pancake! I don't even have the strength to reach my spaceship! Bah! I'm a big fat joke! The cyborgs don't even need to do anything about me, because I simply kill myself! I'll never be better than Kakarotto! Never...!!_

He was starting to get haunted by visions. He saw himself dying... No one shall mourn him, except maybe Bulma. And then the robots will come... Son Goku will get sick, and he will lost the fight against them... The monsters will kill him, they'll kill anyone in their way. The universe will be theirs... He saw a house, which was a lot like Her house, but it was in ruins. Under one of the trees in the garden were two graves. The inscription on the first wooden cross was: "Here lies in eternal slumber Bulma, the loving mother and her baby". And on the other one was: "Here lies Vegita the 18th, the Prince of the Saiyajins, who could have been here to save them, but instead he was killed by his own pride on a planet far away...!

**__**

NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

A horrible scream emerged from his throat. He felt indescribable pain, but only for a moment. A golden aura developed around him, his hair and eyebrows changed to the same colour and his eyes were now not black, but green. His wounds disappeared, like they never were there. He slowly recovered from his insanity, leisurely stood up and fixed his fearful look on the Tourin. A lightbeam shot out from his aura and hit the moon. A flash and it was no more.

- Bulma dear, are you okay? - asked Mrs. Briefs, for the who knows which time. Even her husband, who was working in his lab, heard the shouting and came to see what happened.

- What happened, honey?

- I don't know, I'm yelling here before her door for minutes, but she is not answering!

- Don't get upset, dear. She's maybe just asleep or something.

All of a sudden they heard their daughter's scream from inside.

- Good heavens! - Mr. Briefs turned as white as a sheet - Open the door, quickly!

- I can't! It's locked from the inside!

- Stand aside! I'll brake it down! - said Mr. Briefs, and he dashed against the door. He bounced off, but he didn't give up that easily, he tried again. And again. And again. And again. Finally he was so muddled, he could hardly stay on his feet.

- Honey, - spoke his wife - why don't you rather go get the spare keys? You know the ones you keep in a safe in the basement.

- You're right! Why didn't I think of this earlier?! - said the man and he ran off.

Vegita stepped into the ship with a proud smile on his face. _Yes!_ At last, he reached the goal he wanted to conquer for a long time: He was a super saiyajin. He was The Super Saiyajin! He examined his shiny reflection on the floor, when he noticed that the scouter, which hanged on one of the levers on the control panel, was flashing. Vegita put the instrument on his head, but he did not hear anything.

- I'm listening, B... woman, what's wrong? 

No answer.

__

The message-sending button might have been pushed by mistake. But just when he wanted to put the scouter down, his eardrum almost burst by Bulma's shrill screaming.

That could only mean one thing. Vegita quickly programmed Earth's co-ordinates into the computer and started the blast-off sequence. Long seconds passed, but nothing happened. _That damned electric storm ruined the engine! _He had only one chance to get back: If he puts a space suit on, and flies to Earth. Normally it would took weeks, but the prince hoped that as a super saiyajin he's maximal speed increases as much as his powers do. So he got dressed in the suit, put the helmet on and left the ship. After a moment of concentration his golden ki erupted and he disappeared. Actually he did not disappear, but started moving away from the planet at an unbelievable speed. When he looked back after a few seconds, the sun of the Kapet's solar system was just as big as the other stars on the milky way.

After ten minutes he was at the door of Capsule Corp. He tore the spacesuit off and rushed into the building. Bulma was lying unconscious on the sofa in the livingroom, his parents were walking nervously around her.

- Did you call the ambulance? - asked the prince with an impatient tone in his voice.

- Yes... - started Mr. Briefs, but when he saw the saiyajin with blond hair and green eyes, his voice left him. Vegita noticed this, so he dropped out of super sayajin.

- So?! Answer my question, you idiot!!

- Err... Y-Yes, we called them, but they said we must wait, because all of their vehicles are occupied at the moment.

- Wait?!! You mean you just wait here until those idiots show up??!!

- W-Well, yes, what else?

Vegita didn't answer, he picked Bulma up and raced out of the house. _Stupid humans!!!_

**********************

Author's note: The scene where Vegita turned to SSJ wasn't my idea. It was actually Akira Toriyama's: Vegita told the Z-fighters about how he did it when he rescued Goku from C19. He said he reached SSJ because he was so angry about never being able to surpass Kakarotto and because his heart was pure evil. Of course we all know that that's not enough for someone to turn to SSJ, so Vegita, please try a better excuse next time… :))


End file.
